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“Thus We have made you a justly balanced community, that you may be witnesses to humanity…” (2:143).

- A Reminder to the Ulema for incorporation in the madrasa curriculum.

The Qur’an sets out behavioral paradigms, which can help people to win friends, earn the love and affection of spouses, respect of colleagues, and avoid pinpricks and petty worries in day to day professional and conjugal lives. Not a part of populist Islamic discourses, they are tabled below with self explanatory captions for a quick reader-friendly reminder and deeper reflection.

Conclusion: Traditionally, Muslims restrict their religiosity to the five pillars of faith, and are known globally for their symbolic devotional gestures, like the height or shape of mosque minaret, external grooming in terms of style of beard, turban, veiling of a woman; exactness in the articulation of Qur’anic words, or in body movement during salah etc. but the forgoing paradigms of conduct hardly appear in Islamic discourses or even in the religious grooming of youngsters at family level. The Qur’an expects the Muslims to act as a witness to humanity as the Prophet was a witness to his immediate audience. They can hardly represent the noble Prophet if they, among other things, remain ignorant of the basic behavioral norms expected of them as listed above. The Qur’an, however, is a reminder to all humanity (6:90, 12:104, 38:87, 68:52, 81:27) (zikrul lil ‘alamin) and as such its behavioral paradigms are for all people, and if the Muslims look around with open eyes, they will find countless people of other faiths, who never read the Qur’an or even loath it, excelling in compliance with the Qur’anic paradigms. As the poet laureate Muhammad Iqbal put it: “The posterity of Trinity have carried off the heritage of Abraham – The foundation of the Church rests on the soil of hijaz." (bange dara, dunyae Islam, Verse -2, translated from Urdu).

It is therefore high time that the Muslim children are taught the behavioral paradigms of the Qur’an as part of their childhood grooming / madrassa education rather than its mere recitation without understanding a word as is traditionally the case.